Yikes Part VII

Are they still playing Coldplay's "Clocks" at the end of every loss? A blogger's gotta find something good to make of all of this.

Right now every Mets fan in the country has their arms in the air. Disgust, disappointment, embarrassment, salt. You name a word. With the Mets on the brink of choking up their season in one of the bigger meltdowns in big league history, we can only ask who to blame.

The starting pitching has been ok. Glavine and Maine have been spotty, OP has been pretty damn good, sure, Duque has been hurt, but all in all, the starters haven't killed us.

The lineup has been good. Beltran has been great. Wright, sans double plays, has been great. Alou has been great. Delgado, has been shaky with a few flashes. Reyes, a bit of a let down has still been pretty damn good. These guys are putting up runs thats for sure.

But this team is just finding ways to lose. These are the Old Mets, the team that we grew up with. Maybe that's why this just isn't killing me like it is the rest of you. I am just too used to the Mets being losers. I haven't lived in New York for the winning days to fully grasp it. To me, I guess I just expect the worst.

Which leads to the two scapegoats: Willie and the Pen.



I've gotten more emails questioning Willie's decision making over the last week. I buy some of it but lets just say that all decisions are bad ones when your team loses. Willie needs to somehow find a way to keep his players fresh and up for these next four games. Otherwise, with almost 100% certainty, he will be the scapegoat and looking for a new job in '08.

But the real difference is the bullpen.

Think back to '06.

Sanchez-Heilman-Wagner in the back. Feliciano and Bradford when he we needed some help. Darren Oliver when we needed four innings.

For the first 5 months of the 2006 season the pen was nearly flawless and the Mets dominated. Games were won after the 6th inning. We didn't have weeks like this where we didn't trust a single pitcher in our pen. Somehow someway, the job always seemed to get tone. This season, and especially lately, it seems like the exact opposite.

But then think back to the 2006 postseason. A couple of things strike a chord. Beltran's bat on his shoulder to make the last out of game 7 is the obvious choice. But how how bout the combo of Mota and Wagner blowing Game 2 in the NLCS. We go into St. Louis up 2-0 and its a different series.



For the most part we take the bullpen for granted. They are the lowest paid players on the team. They are not all-stars (middle-men) and for the most part, outside of your own team, they aren't even household names.

Name me 5 setup men in the NL West? Most of you can't. Those who can, well, they blog .

Baseball is such a funny game in that sense. It's kind of the equivalent of the NBA finals being determined by the 7th and 8th players on a team. But in baseball, it can make or break a season.

As terrible as this month has been, the Mets are still in the playoffs. At least for now. We control our own destiny in a league where very few teams can say the same. And further, if the Mets make the playoffs, it is 100% a fresh start.

You saw it with the '06 Cardinals. But I'm sure you've seen it with yourself. I think back to my sophomore year in high school when I batted about .092 as a 5'3 sophomore playing on the varsity. With every at bat I watched my batting average drop and I got more and more depressed. By the end of the season, I was happy putting the ball in play. The next season came around and I had a fresh start. I'm not ready to call myself the Tony Gwynn of New York City baseball but I did hit a heck of a lot better.

That is baseball for you. It is a total mind game. These guys might be professionals but they still remember yesterday just like anyone else.

Come the playoffs, you have a chance to make everything right. Jeff Weaver was about 3-39 last year. He became a postseason hero. Jeff Suppan turned a decent year and an awesome 3 weeks in October into $40 million.

All this team needs to do is get to October. Right now, it looks really grim. But this is the easiest of the professional sports to bounce back in. The Mets could come out and win their next four. They might not. Right now we need to find a way to get there, and everything will be ok.

If not, we complain.

Vaya,
Sip

Oh, and in case you wanted a little more salt in the wound, congrats to those pesky Bombers. The team that three months ago was more done, dead, out of it, then our Mets clinched a 13th straight to October baseball. Take that for what you will.



(Pics courtesy of USAtoday.com, CNN.net)